Edward Mayes

Mola Salsa

We remember now it was Luis Buñuel Portolés
Stropping his razor in the first frames
Of Un Chien Andalou, the moon split in two

By a cloud. What we didn’t know was that Simone
Mareuil, whose left eye was sliced open
On the screen, would drench herself in gasoline

25 years later, on October 24, 1954, in Périgueux,
And burn to death, as did Thích Quẚng Đức
On June 11, 1963, in Saigon, his body falling

Forward after ten minutes, the wars continuing.
And if we hadn’t heard about the Buddhist
Bonfire from David Halberstam, who died

In a car crash on April 23, 2007
Near the Dumbarton Bridge, a bridge
We had crossed over hundreds of times,

We woul